Lincoln Life Mask by Leonard Volk (1828-1895)

Leonard Wells Volk was an American sculptor. With the assistance of Stephen A. Douglas he studied in Rome. In 1857 he opened a studio in Chicago. On March 31, 1860, a month after his Cooper Institute Speech in New York City, Abraham Lincoln sat for Volk in Chicago. Volk made a life mask of Lincoln and casts of his hands. His statues of Lincoln and Douglas are in the capitol at Springfield, IL.